NEW HAVEN >> Joining the religious symbols on the Green next winter will be a 15-foot-tall sculpture sponsored by the Yale Humanist Community, representing all people, both religious and nonreligious.

The idea came to Chris Stedman, executive director of the humanist group, while walking across the Green last winter. While appreciating the Christmas tree, Nativity scene and menorah that grace the Green each year, Stedman said, he thought “there was an opportunity for there to be something more universal that represented shared human values.”

The result is the Green Light Project, a competitive artistic competition won by Edwin “Ted” Salmon of East Haven.

“At every step of the way, we encountered what I would characterize as a lot of support and enthusiasm,” Stedman said.

Nancy Kelly, operations manager of the Yale Humanist Community, described the Green Light Project as “a gift to the community from the community. It’s not going to be devoid of acknowledging the fact that religion is part of our community. If anything, we’re sort of hoping to address the issues that community is the fabric of everybody,” she said. She said about 24 percent of the population identifies as nonreligious.

Salmon said the installation will be in the shape of an obelisk and will evoke New Haven’s lighthouse. It will glow “a cold blue” when standing alone and, using motion sensors, will turn warmer colors as more people gather around it.

The images and the text have not been decided yet. “We still have to go through the narrative images on the sides, so we’re looking more to a worldview than a local view,” Salmon said, though there likely will be local images as well that evoke community, such as a garden or an iconic building. “The imagery that we’re using should really be of a timeless quality,” he said. “We don’t want to date the sculpture too much.”

That’s especially important, he said, because there will be a time capsule inside, intended to be opened in 2138, New Haven’s 500th anniversary. (Kelly said a digital copy of the messages in the time capsule will be kept at the New Haven Museum.)

Salmon also owns an architectural metal-fabrication company, EWS 3-D. “What I do is assess my client’s needs … and they respect my decisions,” he said of his business. He has done fabrication work for Yale and Quinnipiac universities, Subway and Starbucks.

In keeping with the community-wide character of the installation, the humanists have launched a crowd-funding campaign at http://glpnh.com, with rewards depending on the size of the gift. The goal is $40,000. The rewards will include the privilege to submit a message for the time capsule, an enamel Green Light Project pin or an invitation to the group’s gala celebration.

There will be a launch party at 7:30 p.m. tonight, April 6 at The Grove, 756 Chapel St., which is free and open to the public. For more information, go to http://yalehumanists.com.